Reviews for I Carry A Hammer In My Pocket For Occasions Such As These

The average rating for I Carry A Hammer In My Pocket For Occasions Such As These based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2007-06-07 00:00:00 Andrew Boeckel Anthony Tognazzini's stories show an acceptance of calamity, a knowledge that what we prepare for may never come, but something shockingly unexpected very well might. And throughout his stories, sometimes very much coming as a surprise, there are moments of pure empathetic humanity, where Anthony gives us characters simply longing for a better life. His stories explode the artificiality of social graces and the necessity of violating them to get at the rich, rewarding or scary stuff that life offers us. There's a desire to not be caught in automatic action and reaction, but to be vividly present, awake. Sometimes he does it by having his characters react tangentially to their prompts, never quite meeting the situation head-on, but finding novel ways of engaging their fellow actors, their surroundings. There's a mounting sense of desperation at the heart of many of the stories in "I Carry a Hammer for Occasions Such As These" Anthony's vivid imagery and twists of language and meaning reflect the fracturing of personalities; the breaks in communication between neighbors, lovers, family members. His well-honed sense of the absurd serves both to heighten the emotional blows when they come, and also to highlight the preposterous and ridiculous moments that life constantly presents us. The stories, written with the economy and force of poetry, are both dream-state and hard-reality, and much of the joy in reading them is the constant subtle shifting between one and the other. But no matter how unusual the image--and I prefer the term original--Anthony always keeps us in the physical realm, rooted in sensation. Most of the stories are short, some shockingly so. But whether they be a three-sentence story like the clear and utterly concise "The Difference," or rich, extended stories like the violent, erotic and heartbreaking 'Gainesville, Oregon--1962," Anthony shows a skill and ability to take us along for whatever the length of the story, like a jazz musician who can play a pithy, classic melody, or can stretch out and blow, always riveting our attention. Reading Anthony Tognazzini's bracingly original work is a complete pleasure, both an escape and an opportunity to dig in deep to something worthwhile. In one of the last pieces in "I Carry a Hammer…" "Found Story," he writes "I found this gift…and I so much want you to have it."

Review # 2 was written on 2018-12-28 00:00:00 Makis Kalidis Tognazzini creates by building absurdity upon interesting structures. I liked his innovation of form, especially the stories built upon voicemail and a numbered list. His use of dialogue, however, was interesting and apt in a few instances, but the irrelevance of it made me scan over it in most stories. It had the odd effect (effective probably only in short pieces) of making the dialogue more about the act of speaking, the buildup of emotion to a state or instinctive inclination to speak, rather than the words spoken themselves. His plot choices shaped his stories with a hopeless kind of melancholy. It was certainly an interesting read but not worth a return, I think.